He was born Frank Cullota on April 19, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois. He entered Steinmetz High School in 1953. He began his decades-long criminal career as a teenager, graduating from petty theft to burglary, armed robbery, arson and murder. While growing up he had an argument with another boy over a dispute over who could sell newspapers on a certain street, the boy's name was Anthony Spilotro. The two then became friends and criminal allies when they found out their fathers worked together. Spilotro went on to become a made man and feared enforcer of the Chicago Outfit. Cullotta's father died on 1947 in a car crash during a high speed police pursuit.